Yesterday, we noted that the Canadian government is moving to table the Canadian DMCA in spite of the will of Canadians. Now, the government is frustrated and asked the Canadian public to criticize the bill only after it is tabled.
The last time the Canadian DMCA was introduced, Jim Prentice made a very similar request for the Canadian public to not criticize the Canadian DMCA until it was tabled. While we did mention the CBC article previously, Michael Geist noticed that the Canadian government is asking the public to wait for the actual bill to be tabled before discussing it.
There is some significance to this if one were to look back on the history of the previous attempts to table a Canadian DMCA. On a previous attempt, the Conservatives announced that they would be tabling the Canadian DMCA. Michael Geist then set up a Facebook page called “Fair Copyright for Canada” and tens of thousands of people signed up quickly in protest of the legislation. The concern over the Canadian government to sell out Canadians interest to foreign corporate entities such as the top members of the CRIA and the CMPDA (both little more than arms of the MPAA and RIAA operating in Canada respectively) among other things.
The result was that the bill was delayed because of public outcry over the copyright bill. The mood amongst Canadians were mirrored by the Canadian copyright consultation held by the government of Canada where it was nearly unanimous that Canadians did not want to see another Bill C-61. It would be impossible to say that the Canadian government did not notice this.
Since there are definite signs that the Canadian government opted to show their middle finger to the Canadian public over this issue, their move to ask Canadians to not criticise the bill befor it is tabled makes sense. If Canadians do not talk about the bill, then there would be less of a chance that the bill would be delayed like that previous attempt. If the Canadian government is planning on tabling a consumer friendly bill, they would have noted a few details about this by now – which they have not. If it was a consumer friendly bill, saying so would have quelled concerns, but if it is anti-consumer, trying to stay quiet would mean that they aren’t directly lying to the public.
We’ve noted befor that the only thing that will likely save Canada is another election (which would mean the bill would die on the order paper) That doesn’t mean that letters and other forms of opposition would not be successful by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the more opposition to this bill that is seen, the more it’ll be likely delayed. That will increase the chances that it would die on the order paper.
Since the government is already amidst multiple scandals, another fiasco over copyright might be something they don’t want at this time. Because it is a minority situation, the opposition will have another edge in an effort to regain power even though they (the Liberal party as shown in the past with Bill C-60) quietly support the Canadian DMCA. That is why opposition stands a good chance at working at this time too.
So the best advice for Canadians is to do what Michael Geist already suggested: send paper letters to your MPs. Even more is to organize protests and keep the mainstream media talking about copyright. Anything that’ll attract attention to these issues. As long as Canada is silent on this issue, then the Canadian DMCA stands a much better chance at being passed. We all know that this is what Canada does not want.
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